Words of advice from "Hip Hop's Financial Advisor"

In the second installment of interviews I conducted while I was in Chicago for the National Black Chamber of Commerce Convention, meet supermodel, reality star and tv/radio host Claudia Jordan.

You may know Claudia from the Price is Right, the hit NBC game show Deal or Deal, Celebrity Apprentice, the co-host of the Miss Universe Pageant, or as the new co-host of the Rickey Smiley Morning Show.

In this episode, Claudia shares stories of both success and failure in the entertainment biz (including how she made money and lost it all…twice) and her advice for those of you who aspire to be stars.

Items mentioned in this episode include:

Recently I went to Chicago to speak at the National Black Chamber of Commerce Convention and made the most of it by taking advantage of the opportunity to connect with some amazing people.

If the first of 3 interviews I conducted while I was there, meet Chef Roble ALi, star of the hit Bravo TV show Roble & Co., culinary expert to the stars and entrepreneur as he shares how he built his business and is expanding into many areas beyond food.

According to a recent US Census study, 4 in to households with children under 18 have a woman that is the primary or sole breadwinner. That number is 4x what is was in the 1960s! Sorry Mad Men, but times, they are a-changin’.

To help us learn how to still have a great relationship under these circumstances, personal finance expert Farnoosh Torabi joins us on Episode 13 of the Movers and Shakers Podcast with tons of advice from her new book, “When She Makes More.”

Farnoosh has been featured on the Today Show, Yahoo, the NY Times, the Wall Street Journal, The View, CNN and many other national media outlets.

Plus, she knows this topic from experience. She too, makes more than her husband.

I’m often shocked at how little we are taught about two of the most important things in our lives, health and wealth. So, to play my small part in alleviating that problem, I’m excited to bring someone to you that can discuss both of those topics with great expertise, Sean Croxton.

Sean is a health expert with a tremendous following on Youtube and Twitter, and he also has a top rated podcast on BlogTalkRadio and iTunes.

Sean’s passion for health led him to study kinesiology at San Diego State, and to start a career as a personal trainer after graduation.

While working as a personal trainer he had two big major revelations. The first was that most of the information being spread about how to live a health lifestyle was wrong, and he set out to correct those misconceptions. Secondly, he realized that trading time for dollars wasn’t the most efficient, or enjoyable, way to get his message out and to help as many people as he possibly could, so he made a decision to learn more about doing business online.

Sean started creating videos on Youtube and has built a channel with more than 60,000 subscribers and more than 3 million views. He also has 40,000 likes on Facebook and 20,000 followers on Twitter.

He’s written an ebook on health that is used in college courses, and he’s sold 100s of thousands of dollars in products on health and online business.

Here on the Movers&Shakers Podcast, we love talking with entrepreneurs about the journey they took while starting their business. This episode excites me because we’ll be specifically talking about starting a technology company.

But one thing I’ve noticed about tech is that while most of us are consumers of technology, some of us get stuck when it comes to being creators of technology

In order to help you bust through that roadblock and to encourage you to build and create new technologies, in this episode I have someone who has been there and done that, Don Charlton.

When I mention tech startups, you might immediately start thinking of the wealthy silicon valley, or rich kids starting companies in their dorm rooms. But Don’s story definitely didn’t start that way.

He’s not afraid to tell you that he grew up, in his words, “ridiculously poor.” When he left his small Pennsylvania town at 18 to go to college, he had all of $75 to his name.

Now he employs 40+ people, has raised millions of dollars in venture funding, and counts as customers some of your favorite web 2.0 companies such as Tumblr, Instagram and Pinterest, and had his product used by both 2012 presidential campaigns!

Welcome to Episode 10 of the Movers&Shakers Podcast. This episode is important to me because at the beginning of the year I decided that my “Money Mantra” for 2014 was going to be LAUNCH. So, I’m very proud to be able to bring the 10th Episode to you today. I hope you’ve made you mind up to do something special this year as well.

We’ve had the opportunity to chat with and learn from a number of successful entrepreneurs in the first 10 episodes, but I know that some of you Movers & Shakers out there are looking to excel in the corporate arena.

In this episode I’d like you to meet someone who has done just that, the Kat Cole, CEO of the irresistible billion dollar brand Cinnabon.

Kat has an amazing story. As a teenager she started working as a Hostess at Hooters in her home state of Florida. Because of her hard work and trustworthy nature she was asked to help open new Hooters restaurants in Australia and Latin America. Her skill at launching the brand in foreign markets eventually helped her become vice president at the company.

When you prove your success, soon others will come calling, and she is leading the globally recognized brand (and scent….) Cinnabon.

But it wasn’t always this way. Kat had to overcome difficulties in her family life as a kid and made the tough decision to drop out of college before climbing the ladder at Hooters.

There seems to be this notion out there that there are two distinct types of people; those that are book smart, and those that are great at hustling and in business.

But there’s a fatal flaw in that notion. There are may people who have been successful in academia and also successful in the business world.

In this episode I’d like you to meet one of those people, Dr. Randal Pinkett.

Dr. Pinkett is not someone that you want to try to match accolades with at a cocktail party. He has five academic degrees in addition to being a Rhodes Scholar. He is also the winner of season 4 of Donald Trump’s reality show, The Apprentice. If that wasn’t enough, his newest venture, BCT Partners, recently signed a multi Billion dollar contract to provide information technology consulting to the Department of Health and Human Services.

From the feedback I’ve been receiving from all of you, there are a lot of you that want to earn a living by having impact and influence on the lives of other people.

There’s only one problem: Many of you just don’t know where to start. No sweat. Here comes #MoversAndShakers to the rescue.

Enter Melinda Emerson, a.k.a. SmallBizLady, a former journalist who has, over her 15 years in business, become one of the country’s leading experts in building successful small businesses.

Melinda is the author of the best-selling book, Become your Own Boss in 12 Months, she has been named one of the top experts to follow by Forbes Magazine and Huffington Post, and she has an army of 250,000 loyal followers on Twitter.

She’s built a tremendous platform of impact and influence, and there’s a ton that we can learn from her success.

No matter how successful you are, I’m sure that, from time to time, you have some of “those days.” You know the days that I’m talking about. The days when you might question yourself more than usual. The days when things are going as well for you as they normally do. We all face ups and downs along the way and it can be difficult to stay motivated under those circumstances.

If you’ve ever dealt with this type of challenges, then you need to meet Eric Thomas, a.k.a. ET The Hip Hop Preacher. Eric’s notoriety skyrocketed when a speech he gave to a group of students went viral. If you haven’t seen it, you need to watch the video below so that you’ll be properly prepared for the interview.

In this episode, we’ll talk with ET about how he overcame tremendous obstacles (including homelessness, and dropping out of high school) to become a highly sought after motivational speaker, author, voice over artist and entrepreneur.

If you feel like you have things you need to over come in life, or you want to build a platform to help others do so, you’ll love this episode.

Don’t worry, I already know what you’re thinking. The polar vortex has you questioning why your risk your life the in the treacherous city streets, just to go to a job you hate. If this is you, I’m sure it wouldn’t take too much convincing to get you to leave your job.

But what if you have a good job? What if you work for a billionaire and travel across the world? What if you have a fancy degree that everyone thinks you should be using? How easy would it be to leave then?

In this episode, we’ll meet someone who was in that exact same position, Paul Brunson. Paul, a.k.a. the Modern Day Hitch, left a lucrative finance job to create a business as a matchmaker and he hasn’t looked back since.